Why isn't Soccer a more popular sport in the USA?

[MadShinji]

I know what some of you will say, but soccer is the #1 sport in the rest of the world, except the USA and maybe Canada.

If you think about it, soccer is basically just like hockey except without ice or sticks. The premise is the same. Two goals, two goalkeepers and players with thier own possitions either trying to score a goal or keep the other team from scoring.

Hockey may be faster paced, but i think that both games are equally exciting. We have the MLS here in the states, but it's never taken off on TV or in numbers of fans. I think a lot of the reason is that no one is willing to take the chance on it and give them a decent place to play and some advertising. I mean, youth soccer is HUGE in the US, and the women won the last Women's World Cup but still no major push.

Why do you think that the reason is for professional soccer's lukewarm reception in the states?

[BulletCatcher]

It's the culture.

The major sports in American are uniquely American. Soccer is the worlds most played and loved sport but it's not American. Baseball, football and basketball were invented (for the most part) and developed here.

It goes beyond even sports. Take music for example. How many artists have sold millions of records and have sell out shows all over the rest of the world but never even have a minor hit in the USA? We tend to stick to what we know and are leary of things that come from the outside.

[gov135]

I think they have excellent places to play. The stadium in Columbus is touted as being one of the best in the world. This weekend, Celtic of Scotland will play the Boca Jrs. of Argentina (a late replacement for AC Milan) in Cleveland Stadium.

I personally feel the problem is two-fold:
1. There is noone pursuing soccer (men) from college to pros. Athletes instead play other sports. So there is noone from the public to saying, "Hey I know that guy. He's from Ohio." There simply is no LeBron James to get people excited.
2. There is no season for it. In North America, television is king. Baseball gets summer, football fall, basketball winter, etc. When one season ends, another begins, and tv follows it. I don't think MLS has a serious t.v. contact.

[The_Dude]

americans dont have a pleasing toward things british and soccer has a british linkage to it.

look @ cricket.

we do things the opposite ways that britain does.

drivin on the opp side, turning locks the other way, turning switches on/off the opposite way.


or it could be cuz we have american football.

[The_Dude]

and one more thing. soccer is usually low scoring and that's one turn off for me in watchin soccer ( but baseball is the same thing but we love it...weird)

[Nikilidstrom]

when was the last time baseball was low scoring? 14-5 is not a low score. I think as those junior aged soccer fans/players start growing up, soccer will pick up here in North America, but like gov135 said, unless one of the big 4 sports goes down the tubes, soccer is always going to be on the losing end for tv dollars. Golf and Nascar tend to take up any extra sports programing time left over from the majors, and there is really very few options left open. Personally, I would much rather watch a 0-0 soccer match then this shitty "reality" tv that we are force fed in the States

[wwcd101]

Soccer has made huge progress the last 10-15 years.

The introduction of the MLS and the success of the US national teams, combined with the Youth Club/Select system (and the Olympic Development Program) has dramatically grown the base of support.

It's already the #1 Girls/Women's sport.

Admittedly, things are so crowded on the Mens sports side, it will take time, but the opportunity for world-wide competition, and available $$$'s, will continue to boost its popularity.

I'm a recent convert.

A projection? 30 years from now, soccer will be bigger than baseball.

Thanks for listening.

[MadShinji]

I hope you're right. If anyone here says that soccer is boring, they've obviously never watched a baseball game.

[Charlatan]

Originally posted by MadShinji
I hope you're right. If anyone here says that soccer is boring, they've obviously never watched a baseball game.

I couldn't agree more...

Soccer is the most played sport in America (at least I think I read that somewhere). It just isn't given the time in the professional circuit.

There a many, many kids and adult in soccer leagues all over the US and Canada. Let's face it, it is a cheap sport to become involved with (i.e. no expensive equipment just a ball and a pitch).

The main problem, as stated above, is that the professional feild is full with hockey, basketball, football, etc.

[Glory's Sun]

Another thing is that I believe most people don't understand alot of the rules associated with soccer. The same goes for hockey. When people don't understand a sport they can't really get into it as much as something they do understand. Also alot of guys that I know think it's a "pussy" sport. Let me tell you... there are more injuries and more hits in soccer than in football or basketball and baseball. When I played soccer, all season long I was banged up because it's hell on the pitch.

[andyc]

Because you lose most of the time !

[djflish]

Too right guccilvr! Football is by far and away the most played sport in England, and getting a full blown tackle from a 3rd Division Centre Back is far worse than any tackle from an american football player!

I don't suppose any septics out there can explain the offside rule?!!

[MadShinji]

Oh damn i knew that one.

Isn't it when the ball is sent to a player of the attacking team while in the defenders half of the pitch and there are less that 2 defenders infront of him?

Damnit! i think it's something like that.

[Halx]

I think soccer is boring... and I LOVE baseball.

I played soccer in the AYSO for 8 years when I was an itty bitty kid. I didn't really follow up on the whole deal because it's simply not televised enough. Occasionally I'll catch an LA Galaxy MLS game, and I did watch some of the World Cup just recently, but the game itself has a sense of predictability. One guy cant turn a game around by running a fast break down the field without opposition, or hitting a clutch home run to score 2 of his teammates, or even knock a bullet slapshot in from 50 feet. Everything in soccer happens slowly.

Baseball, on the other hand is all about anticipation, expectation and surprise.

[vinnyferrozzo]

I think that the main reson is that who wants to watch a sport where the average ending score is a 0-0 tie. At least in hockey you will likely see someone get his ass kicked.

[superhaun]

It's simple... Everyone seems to grow up learning about american football. They all think that is the, "manly" sport. I've played soccer for nearly 15 years, and I've always been told that soccer is for pansies. Especially playing at my High School, nobody supported soccer. Soccer is often associated with a certain type of person, say a "Prep" sport. and for that reason, many people just don't like it for that reason. At least that is what i saw growing up!

[Glory's Sun]

Originally posted by Halx
I think soccer is boring... and I LOVE baseball.

I played soccer in the AYSO for 8 years when I was an itty bitty kid. I didn't really follow up on the whole deal because it's simply not televised enough. Occasionally I'll catch an LA Galaxy MLS game, and I did watch some of the World Cup just recently, but the game itself has a sense of predictability. One guy cant turn a game around by running a fast break down the field without opposition, or hitting a clutch home run to score 2 of his teammates, or even knock a bullet slapshot in from 50 feet. Everything in soccer happens slowly.

Baseball, on the other hand is all about anticipation, expectation and surprise.

I beg to differ on this one.. breakaways happen alot.. as long as the linesmen aren't fucknuts. Things can happen very quickly in soccer it's just that the US game is relatively slow.. for some reason our soccer players focus more on finesse instead of getting the ball past the netminder. The english game is refined yet fast and the italian game is well fast and involves alot of cheating the German game is similar to the english game in it's finesse factor and speed factor. I think if the US adopted an English style you'd see more support for it because it would be better to watch.. also it would help if our men won the cup. We did well in the last cup but until we prove it's not a fluke then support will be limited.

[tardka]

Soccer isn't as much like hockey as it is to women's lacrosse. No real contact, played on a field, positions match better. That's not the point though.

Soccer is definately gaining acceptance and I'm sure a good deal of it comes from doing so well this past World Cup. We enjoy watching the current major American sports because we have the most skilled leagues in the world for them. The MLS, however, does not come close to the skill level of many other worldwide soccer leagues. Another factor is that children have many more popular sports to choose from in America. Not every kid grows up with soccer as kids in other countries do.

[BigGov]

Too right guccilvr! Football is by far and away the most played sport in England, and getting a full blown tackle from a 3rd Division Centre Back is far worse than any tackle from an american football player!

Yes, I'm sure a full blown legal tackle which hurts someone's legs and causes them to get up limping is just horrible. Much, much worse than say, a Brian Dawkins hit that causes a guy to get up and have no clue as to where he is, much worse than Ray Lewis on that poor bastard that got nailed on the 109 yard missed field goal return by McAlister, much worse than Warren Sapp's hit on Chad Clifton which had doctors thinking that he possibly could never walk again, much worse than the hits seemingly every other week on Troy Aikman that received from the likes of Lavar Arrington and Chris Claiborn, and of course, absolutely much worse than the hits the Eagles gave to any poor wide receiver at the Vet, which not only would they be hit so hard that they would not know where they were, but if they were like Michael Irvin, they also got to have their head driven straight into concrete, which compressed his vertebre I believe. Soccer is much worse, please.

I don't suppose any septics out there can explain the offside rule?!!

An offensive player that is beyond every defensive player (except the goalie) when the ball is passed. Or something to that affect.

[dtheriault]

Originally posted by djflish
Too right guccilvr! Football is by far and away the most played sport in England, and getting a full blown tackle from a 3rd Division Centre Back is far worse than any tackle from an american football player.

i hope you're joking...
people die and are paralyzed for life not just once in a while, but fairly regularly playing american football. i doubt that happens as often in soccer.

the average life span for a professional american football player is 54. 54! Their bodies take a pounding that is unreal. An expert once described it as such. "sprint full speed for 15 yards head first straight into a wall. do this 25-40 times in a row and that's the same damage that a football player does to his body during a typical game.

i know soccer gets a rep in america as a girl's sport, and having played both indoor and outdoor soccer i know there are plenty of hard collisions. that being said, i still play soccer at 36. i would never think of playing tackle football every weekend at 36. i would never get to work on monday.

[wwcd101]

Of the major sports, football is the unquestionably the roughest.

Then Hockey.

Then Soccer.

Then Basketball.

Then Tennis.

Then Golf.

Then Baseball.

NASCAR is not a sport.

Thanks for listening.

[djflish]

you forgot to mention rugby

at least rugby players dont wear helmets and shoulder pads!!

[Halx]

Golf and Tennis is more rough than Baseball? WTF?

Derek Jeter dislocating his shoulder on opening day, Alex Cora getting knocked out last year, Mike Piazza charging Guillermo Mota, Kazuhisa Ishii getting knocked out too last year. Have you ever heard of Mike Scoscia? Johnny Bench?

[gibingus]

Originally posted by Halx
Baseball, on the other hand is all about anticipation, expectation and surprise.

Beautifully put, Halx. (and what photo effect did you use to get your avatar like that?) Something is always happening on the baseball field, and the game loses something on television when you only see that foreshortened shot of the battery from deep center field.

Mass popularity of sports is a function of mass media (in this, I mean function in the mathematical sense). Some examples

Baseball, which became a professional sport in the late nineteenth century during they heyday of yellowsheet competition, is a perfect newspaper sport. Heavy in stats and box scores, long seasons and wide field. You follow the game all season long on paper. It's relaxed, but tension builds in a long slow beautiful way. Aside from that, the ball park experience is sublime... and that is where it became the American Pastime.

Professional (American) Football was a sleeper sport with no money potential until television broke through in the Fifties, about which time the leagues reorganized and changed the rules to make it the best sport for the medium. Although broadband is coming up, television still rules the culture, and the NFL is the biggest breadwinner around.

The NBA also fit well with television, but the league has problems that cause it's popularity to waver and never really top football. At the professional level, it is a team sport that is ruled by individual egos, not teams... in many ways, this is why NCAA ball retains higher viewer loyalty and is more popular in many markets. The rules are continually being adjusted to make it more competitive and more interesting to watch, so give it time.

Professional Hockey has never been big. It's just not friendly, so it attracts a hardcore, die-hard fan base. Come on, Edmondton? Calgary? Harsh, man. Hard to watch on TV, the puck is just a problem. But it is damn fast, tightly contained, intensely violent, and very exciting once you get your head around it.

But Soccer... soccer is a bad tv sport. It has all the challenges of hockey in terms of rules and bounds, but the pill (a ball instead of a puck) is slower, people run instead of skate, and the field is HUGE. That translates into low scoring, and fans like scoring (for those about to mention baseball, there is a huge difference between a low scoring game and a no hitter, and yes, everyone loves home runs). Honestly, you watch soccer, and it just looks like a bunch of tiny guys running around kicking a ball with no real object. There's nothing to grab onto, you can't see the whole field in the frame, and it's just frustrating waiting for something to happen... you know the object is to put the ball in the hole, but it never gets there. Then it ends up being decided purely on penalty kicks... which are just plain onesided and dopey. Overtime should be a briefer version of the full deal... would you really just watch a game that was only penalty kicks? If the answer is no, they should go.

So in short, the rules need to be adjusted to offer more meaningful scoring opportunities and help the game break into prime time. I say meaningful here, because we aren't looking for Cricket scores. The field should be smaller and the defensive rules need to be lightened up to enable some offense. All professional leagues do this to make the games more interesting, think of the three point line, the instant replay judge, the shot clock.... all these things are designed to make the game better for the fan.

[gibingus]

Originally posted by guccilvr
.. for some reason our soccer players focus more on finesse instead of getting the ball past the netminder.

uh, and how is this superior? do you win games on how stylish you look handling the ball or by putting numbers on the board?

[Paper Clip]

Wow - a great discussion on the pros and cons of soccer. I think the field is too big so that the players look too small is a big part. Also - no commercial breaks - TV will hardly go for that. I have watched some MLS on ESPN, and I must say, it was pretty interesting to watch. I'd like to see some the the premier teams from Europe play. I understand that they are touring the US right now to drum up some support. I'd like to see one of those matches.

[gibingus]

Originally posted by djflish
Too right guccilvr! Football is by far and away the most played sport in England, and getting a full blown tackle from a 3rd Division Centre Back is far worse than any tackle from an american football player!

Dude, don't write checks with your mouth that your butt can't cash. Three words: Joe Theisman's Leg.

But, for our brethren across the pond who's bits and pieces may not shrink up at those words because they didn't see it on tv, let's match up:

Simeon Rice, Defensive End for the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers is 29 years old, 6'5" tall and tips the scales at 270 pounds (with virtually no body fat). In his preseason workouts, he is benching 275 in four sets. He runs the 40 yard dash in just under 5 seconds.

David Beckham, Middleman and Captain of Manchester United, is 180 cm tall and weighs 71 kg dripping wet. Stats are hard to find for these gentelmen athletes, but sure he's speedy and shows great finesse in ball handling.

Sure Beckham is married to a Spice Girl, but you can skip the physics on calculating the force per square inch when Rice takes down a quarterback. It's a punishing blow.

[jcookc6]

One of the reason soccer is not catching on that much with TV in this country, is that with the exception of Fox Sports World you can't get real soccer. MLS soccer is very boring and people blow those stupid horns all the time which is very annoying.
Every four years we get real soccer with the World Cup, yet ESPN makes it unwatchable. You have to put it on one of the Spainish stations.

[crow_daw]

I, like so many other Americans, am simply bored to tears by it. I'm sorry, but I am, and I cannot help it.

[pezking4]

Jim Rome was talking about soccer not being more popular yesterday on the radio.. very amusing.
I played soccer for many years when I was younger, but when I watch it on tv I tend to get bored with it. I think this is because the action can be monotomous at times. Things seem to go slow for awhile and then the action is suddenly sparatic and explosive.

[pattymac]

as jcookc6 said only if you have fox sports world can you get great soccer on TV and some of the problems are that it is hard to get a full grip of what is going on on the field on TV because you only see a quarter at a time. same with Hockey but soccer is soo much better to watch than any baseball game anyday even if is a 7-8 year olds game at the local park. Soccer is making a strong move forward here in the US and it is not only because of the strong showing in the last world cup but because more and more people are playing it growing up and they are now haveing more opportuities to play it professionally.

[Spartak]

Originally posted by Jimmy4
...Ray Lewis ... McAlister ... Warren Sapp's .. Chad Clifton ... Troy Aikman .... Lavar Arrington ... Chris Claiborn ... Eagles ... Michael Irvin.

Soccer is much worse, please.

Alfie Inge Haaland , a victim of a pre-meditated kick to the back of the knee by Roy Keane during the Manchester derby, in 2001, STILL can't play properly, and is contemplating retirement.

Marco Di Vaio, he was knocked unconcious during a corner kick and swallowed his tongue in the process, which required urgent medical treatment.

Marc Vivien Foe paid the ultimate price, collapsing and dying on the pitch during the middle of the game, mainly because he had to play more than 16 games in his season.

The main difference seems to be that soccer players don't need to prove how "tough" they are every week by quoting different injuries they had. Or the injuries that can occur to them.

Granted, the likelihood of getting their spinal cord snapped in half is a lot lower. However to soccer players, the phrase "torn knee ligaments" is just as serious as to an NFL player.

[Brian Fellows]

Nobody wants to see people run around for 90 minutes with little action and a score of 1-0.

[Konichiwaneko]

Because it's not a betting game...honest.

There isn't enough stat's or scoring variable to make enough money on it.

Football in the us is really popular cause of the money you can make betting in it.

[Spartak]

You can make money off any sport that you know well.

Like how I made $100 (New Zealand pesos, which is approx $52 US) off the UEFA Champions League final, GO AC MILAN YOU GOOD THING!

[jwoody]

You could turn this question on it's head and ask why American Football, Baseball and Basketball aren't so popoular in the rest of the world.

It's all down to what we've grown up with. Until maybe 10-15 years ago very few countries showed sports from abroad on television, but since cable and satellite TV became the norm there's far more air time to fill (and what better to fill it with than two-three hour long sporting events) and so we are introduced to others' cultures.

Video games have also played their part. I didn't have a clue about the rules of American Footy until I played a John Madden game. I knew the basics of basketball before I played NBA on the playstation.

[wwcd101]

Rugby is tougher/meaner/nastier than Football.

I wasn't counting Rugby as a major sport. Should we?

Thanks for listening.

[wwcd101]

Oh, and on the tennis and golf vs. baseball comment. With tennis and golf, at the highest level, the games and practices are grueling. Baseball may have the rare collision, by accident, not design, but it still involves an amazing amount of standing around doing nothing.

Thanks for listening.

[djflish]

Of course rugby is a major sport! Its the 2nd biggest sport to football (sorry 'soccer') in a lot of countries like england, australia, new zealand, south africa, france, etc, etc.

Plus its the rugby world cup in october and england are favourites!!

[djflish]

Americans sports only seem to be popular if they are the best at it, like basketball, american football and baseball.
And theres not exactly a lot of international tournaments or games with these sports. they only play against other american teams, apart from the olympics and thats not quite the same.